Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what budgetary provision her Department has allocated for payments of redress to victims of the Post Office Horizon scandal in each financial year in which payments are estimated to be made.

The final cost of Horizon compensation will depend on the circumstances set out in individual claims. We are promising fair and equal treatment of postmasters, not a set amount of money. The amount we spend will depend on how many people come forward and the claims which are submitted.

The Government has to date committed a maximum of just over £1bn to ensure postmasters are compensated fairly. That is not a forecast: it is an estimate of the maximum Government funding which could be needed for compensation, which we have made in response to our obligation to make subsidies transparent.